Questions about hospital tank

[bertshaft]

Afternoon all ( uk time )
Bit of a sticky situation and a couple of questions to answer if at all possible please . One of my fish , regal tang , has what I believe is ick . As it’s in my dt I’ve decided to strip the tank down and use it as a hospital tank . I have a reefer 450 which I’m setting up and the idea of having to chase a fish around that gives me nightmares . It won’t be ready for at least another month .
the tank I have is 120 lt , about 32 us gallons. In it I have x2 common clowns , x2 blue green chromois , small coral beauty, small mustard tang , copperband and a Fiji foxface . Yes I know it’s a bit crowded in there but they are all small/ young fish and hadn’t intended them to stay in there that long .
I have live rock and a sand bed . Corals , mostly softies, crabs , shrimp, and snails .
all are feeding well and putting on weight .
The system has no sump and being run on a canister filter with a uv . Internal protein skimmer and x2 wave makers . I understand this is not ideal and with hindsight would have done it differently but this is what I have .

my plan was to remove all remove all rock and sand , dip corals and put in their own qt tank for about a month. Remove filter and skimmer , put in hob filter and dose with Cupramine, testing with salifert test kit .regular water changes as required with a seachem ammonia alert in both tanks . Tank will be bare bottom with plastic pipes in . 30 days . Then transfer to reefer which hopefully will be set up and cycled by this time .
Do think this would work?
I gather that any equipment in contact with the copper can’t be used in the dt if it has inverts/corals in so will be kept just for qt from now on , which I should have done in the first place . Lesson learned.
The rock was going to be used in the new tank and I was going to bleach it before putting it in . Do you think I can do the same with the sand as I’d hate to just throw it away?
If you’ve got to the end of all this , we’ll done , thank you and 10 points to griffindore. Cheers .

 

[LAReefer4Life]

I'd suggest posting some good photos or video under white light so others on the forum can guide you in the right direction. You definitely want a second opinion to confirm ich before going through this huge process.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Afternoon all ( uk time )
Bit of a sticky situation and a couple of questions to answer if at all possible please . One of my fish , regal tang , has what I believe is ick . As it’s in my dt I’ve decided to strip the tank down and use it as a hospital tank . I have a reefer 450 which I’m setting up and the idea of having to chase a fish around that gives me nightmares . It won’t be ready for at least another month .
the tank I have is 120 lt , about 32 us gallons. In it I have x2 common clowns , x2 blue green chromois , small coral beauty, small mustard tang , copperband and a Fiji foxface . Yes I know it’s a bit crowded in there but they are all small/ young fish and hadn’t intended them to stay in there that long .
I have live rock and a sand bed . Corals , mostly softies, crabs , shrimp, and snails .
all are feeding well and putting on weight .
The system has no sump and being run on a canister filter with a uv . Internal protein skimmer and x2 wave makers . I understand this is not ideal and with hindsight would have done it differently but this is what I have .

my plan was to remove all remove all rock and sand , dip corals and put in their own qt tank for about a month. Remove filter and skimmer , put in hob filter and dose with Cupramine, testing with salifert test kit .regular water changes as required with a seachem ammonia alert in both tanks . Tank will be bare bottom with plastic pipes in . 30 days . Then transfer to reefer which hopefully will be set up and cycled by this time .
Do think this would work?
I gather that any equipment in contact with the copper can’t be used in the dt if it has inverts/corals in so will be kept just for qt from now on , which I should have done in the first place . Lesson learned.
The rock was going to be used in the new tank and I was going to bleach it before putting it in . Do you think I can do the same with the sand as I’d hate to just throw it away?
If you’ve got to the end of all this , we’ll done , thank you and 10 points to griffindore. Cheers .

Your plan is on track. Set the new display and get it cycled, seeded and prepped while the fish are in quarantine. As you recognized, its quite a bit of fish for a 40B but maintain good water quality testing with a Reliable test kit and add airstone for added oxygen.
Cupramine will be 0.5 for full 30 days and again monitored by a reliable test kit.

 

[threebuoys]

Afternoon all ( uk time )
Bit of a sticky situation and a couple of questions to answer if at all possible please . One of my fish , regal tang , has what I believe is ick . As it’s in my dt I’ve decided to strip the tank down and use it as a hospital tank . I have a reefer 450 which I’m setting up and the idea of having to chase a fish around that gives me nightmares . It won’t be ready for at least another month .
the tank I have is 120 lt , about 32 us gallons. In it I have x2 common clowns , x2 blue green chromois , small coral beauty, small mustard tang , copperband and a Fiji foxface . Yes I know it’s a bit crowded in there but they are all small/ young fish and hadn’t intended them to stay in there that long .
I have live rock and a sand bed . Corals , mostly softies, crabs , shrimp, and snails .
all are feeding well and putting on weight .
The system has no sump and being run on a canister filter with a uv . Internal protein skimmer and x2 wave makers . I understand this is not ideal and with hindsight would have done it differently but this is what I have .

my plan was to remove all remove all rock and sand , dip corals and put in their own qt tank for about a month. Remove filter and skimmer , put in hob filter and dose with Cupramine, testing with salifert test kit .regular water changes as required with a seachem ammonia alert in both tanks . Tank will be bare bottom with plastic pipes in . 30 days . Then transfer to reefer which hopefully will be set up and cycled by this time .
Do think this would work?
I gather that any equipment in contact with the copper can’t be used in the dt if it has inverts/corals in so will be kept just for qt from now on , which I should have done in the first place . Lesson learned.
The rock was going to be used in the new tank and I was going to bleach it before putting it in . Do you think I can do the same with the sand as I’d hate to just throw it away?
If you’ve got to the end of all this , we’ll done , thank you and 10 points to griffindore. Cheers .

If, in fact, your fish has ich, you will need a QT and converting your 32 gallon into one is a good idea since you have a larger tank on the way.

You will need to remove anything capable of absorbing copper from the existing tank. Most substrates and live rock are calcium based(e.g. aragonite gravel, dead coral) and must be removed. If this material has been exposed to copper in the past, you should just dispose of it. Complete removal of the copper is almost impossible. If the material has never been exposed to copper, you can bleach and reuse in your new tank, although you might find complete replacement might be quicker.

You should continue to use your existing canister filter on the converted QT since it already provides biological processing of ammonia into nitrate. Just remove any carbon or other material that could absorb copper or medications. The protein skimmer and uv can be sterilized with bleach and moved to the new tank if you wish.

If you move the live rock and coral and inverts to your new tank, you will need to allow that tank to remain fallow (i.e. no fish) for 6 to 8 weeks to insure any parasites or parasite eggs are exterminated naturally by completing their life cycle without any avaliable hosts.. Otherwise, odds are high the fish will become reinfected in the new tank due to transfer from the old tank.

 

[bertshaft]

Many thanks all . Any chance of saving / sterilising the sand ?

 

[threebuoys]

If it has never been exposed to copper then yes if you bleach it. Most sand in marine aquariums use aragonite which is calcareous and absorbs copper. So can't use that in either tank if it has been exposed to copper.

 

[bertshaft]

Lovely, cheers.

 

[sc50964]

Dump the cupramine and use copper power or coppersafe as those stay mostly in the water, easier to control, not toxic with the use of UV, & mixes better with other meds although still not recommended.

 

[bertshaft]

That would have been may first choice but I don’t think we can get it in the uk .

 

[sc50964]

That would have been may first choice but I don’t think we can get it in the uk .

Not through Amazon?

 

[bertshaft]

I stand corrected. You can get both on Amazon uk ( for a ridiculously high price ) but wouldn’t be delivered till the beginning of march which may be to late .what do you think . May order some for next time though .

 

[sc50964]

I stand corrected. You can get both on Amazon uk ( for a ridiculously high price ) but wouldn’t be delivered till the beginning of march which may be to late .what do you think . May order some for next time though .

Cupramine is hard to control. Do you have a Hanna high ranger copper reader?

 

[bertshaft]

No , just the salifert test kit . Will that be ok ?

 

[sc50964]

No , just the salifert test kit . Will that be ok ?

Not worth the risk IME…

 

[sc50964]

Are there no pet retailers that carry it locally?

 

[bertshaft]

The hanna checker ?

 

[gbroadbridge]

Cupramine is hard to control. Do you have a Hanna high ranger copper reader?

The Hanna HR copper checker is useless for dosing Cupramine.
It is not accurate under 1ppm.

The most accurate test if you must use Cupramine is the Seachem test.

 

[bertshaft]

So the salifert kit is no good ?

 

[sc50964]

So the salifert kit is no good ?

If Hanna reader is not good enough for the 0.5ppm requirement of cupramine, then you are really just rolling the dice. How big are the fish you are trying to treat and how sick are they? Are they eating?

 

[sc50964]

The Hanna HR copper checker is useless for dosing Cupramine.
It is not accurate under 1ppm.

The most accurate test if you must use Cupramine is the Seachem test.

Are you sure about the source of inaccuracy? Hanna has admitted to me about that level of problem due to their reagents but not their machines. In fact I have two and have compared their measurements periodically and never had anything greater than 0.05ppm diff.

humble fish said the inaccuracy is only +/- 0.05ppm